A Rain of Ruin from the Air

Flying machines

remind me

of Pearl Harbor,

of Little Boy and Fat Man,

of Twin Towers and Aleppo

of necropolis everywhere,

of history repeating itself.

Sky-path is for the birds

and innocence only.

* On August 6, the U.S. dropped a uraniumgun-type (Little Boy) bomb on Hiroshima, and American President Harry S. Truman called for Japan’s surrender, warning it to “expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.” Three days later, on August 9, a plutoniumimplosion-type (Fat Man) bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Wikipedia

Brilliant! I, too, can’t see a plane from the ground without thinking of war–declared and undeclared. Again, I think how horrible that the very thing that could bring people together is what brings the most death and destruction. When I was a child in the 50s, hearing a plane or seeing a trail above would make me pause, applaud and enter wonder. Now, dread and guilt come before any innocent thought.

Sadly I remember the end of WW2 and the relief that the war in Europe the Far East was ended fairly quickly in 1945. However I was few uncles short by then killed in action and millions were grateful that the conflict was over after 6 years of world wide suffering and shortages.

Nearly all of our discoveries and technological advances can be used for good or evil, Sumana. Nobel’s dynamite, aeroplanes as means of transportation or as death machines in war, nuclear energy. Now more than ever, we need to educate our children to choose the way of peace and good, not evil…